Salvation is Through Israel with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] back to the yibbana bait midrash welcome home to torah a warm welcome we are in parshat shof team in deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 18. but before we begin i have a few brief brief announcements number one the hebrew source sheets are available right by going down into the description box and um clicking on the right book the right parsha and check out the year as well and you'll find the hebrew sources we want to learn hebrew we want you to learn hebrew so important number one number two we always teach about fundamentals you may think you know we're getting to the nitty-gritty of the hebrew but trust me you will learn something about judaism uh we are continuing our fundraising campaign which we distribute uh funds to the needy here in jerusalem so those who want to participate this is now in the month of ello these funds will be handed out before the hageem the high holidays so we are approaching 50 percent of our goal and it's a big mitzvah to participate also we're open to sponsorships we we're always sponsoring all the other classes but somebody approached me and says we want to sponsor here and again so why not open to sponsorship so when you send the email or the uh the contribution mention who it's for what it's for for what reason so that we can announce it like i'm going to announce right now that our shirt tonight should be for ali nashama of yaakov ben naftali hertz chanel and for the rafa of a dear friend of mine chaimarier ben zelik david hakoen also by the way down below in the description box are links to previous classes so you can learn other parts of the parsha we're only going to be learning like one verse one verse we're going to talk maybe you know 45 minutes to an hour about it okay so let's begin as i mentioned we are in deuteronomy 17 verse 18 and it says part of this parsha is telling us about the laws of the kings different kings and when he sits upon his royal throne what he should do is write for himself two copies he has to have a copy of the safer torah that's placed in the treasury he should remember where his wealth is coming from and that's for himself and then he's to carry a safer torah around everywhere he goes so that he should know that he's not above the law as we know there are these corrupt politicians throughout the world that believe they're above the law so the king is not above the law but he has to keep the torah as well and um yep so the kosovo at mishni hatorah hazot and it's i'll say foreign and it's written exactly as the previous safer torah copy word for word this is one of the amazing proofs of judaism and how we have kept the torah that so many books whether you think of a shakespeare or any other you know well-known book they're probably different volumes different texts for sure when you talk about these other religions so our text is the same text that we've had for three thousand three hundred plus years okay let's go into what the clear car has to say the first thing he says is look at rashi parish rashi by the way on that page i gave you to the very bottom paragraph parish if the king does exactly like this he carries the safer torah he's listening and he's reading from and he's learning from it kade who says for if he does this he merits that his kingdom will remain established okay in other words you want to sit upon the throne or you want to remain upon the throne right when he sits upon his throne he's going to have these copies of this he's going to have one safe return he walks around with and this is in order to that he keeps the law if the king is righteous he'll remain on the throne okay now just keep in mind we're going to discuss three warnings three specific warnings for the call for the king that he shouldn't amass too much wealth he shouldn't amass too many horses and he shouldn't amass too many wise so the word ki say there's an acronym alef an acronym for kessif the khat shouldn't acquire amass too much money soos the sameech is for soos and the aleph is for isha so that is the next thing that the clear car brings down he says rem is la davar now just to reiterate his point the biscuit she and nizhar bishloshtan that in the merit of of observing and keeping and being careful in these three things that he's been warned about yes hashem so not only will he remain in his throne but it's actually called the throne of god that the king is sitting al-ki say hashem as the verse had says actually it's in in first chronicles 29 verse 23 you see number three on the english sword sheet and solomon sat on the throne of the lord as king instead of his david his father and he prospered and all israel obeyed him the akisa hashem that is what the the um the king basrat hashem will merit rashi mentions right there here it is appropriate to say that he reigned on the throne of the lord why because the throne belongs to god it's god's who decides who sits on it and that's why it's considered the throne of god as well okay therefore we're on the fourth line down lefikach hashem um therefore it's important come incumbent upon the king he needs to it's requires him to be extremely careful from these things because they would remove his heart right the distractions they remove his heart from hashem and they will separate him they'll separate him from god ki harbos kessif the zahav as we know right something we all know if we don't now we know it that increase of kasif and zaha that god forbid amassing wealth can bring one to forgetting hashem and you'll find this just as a proof text uh turn the page number four deuteronomy chapter eight verses thirteen and fourteen uh the verse the part of the verse the cleo car points out was the case of zahav the whole verse is and your herds and your flocks multiply this is by any person and your silver and gold increase and all that you have increases and then very important and your heart grows haughty as a result of your heart growing halti you forget the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt out of the house of bondage it's true our god saved us from egypt okay now he that is our god the first of the ten commandments the essen maraud it says i am the lord your god who brought you out of the land of egypt it doesn't say i'm the lord your god who created the universe right but i'm the lord your god who brought you out we have a personal relationship an intimate relationship he saved the hashem is our salvation okay and that's going to be the main point of tonight's discussion okay so so far that's what we read so that's about amassing wealth that's number one the king should not amass too much wealth also that the increase of horses is another reason why one would remove their trust in hashem the if and what they would end up doing is trusting you know i mean in modern terms maybe tanks and airplanes i don't know but they would end up trusting their horses and their chariots as it says in isaiah chapter 31 verse 1. so go it's number five on the sorcery woe to those who go down to egypt for eight by the way just a little bit of background so isaiah told them listen don't go down to egypt don't associate don't make a pact with them you're supposed to make a pact with the assyrians but nevertheless the northern tribes went ahead and made a pact with egypt and that was not good because egypt was not there for them and who rely on horses and trust in chariots which are many and on riders who are very strong and they did not rely on the holy one of israel and the lord they did not seek okay so they were warned not to align with egypt but rather to follow the guideline of the prophet and this is taking place um not mistaken chapter 37 in isaiah you can also find it in the second kings chapter 17 he aligned with egypt instead of assyria by the way just you should know i mean this is an amazing story you know hezekiah who was as we were talking before he was a a candidate to be mashiach you know what he said when the assyrians finally came to yehuda and to jerusalem he said nobody leave the bait midrash we're going to put armed guards you imagine it's like the opposite of of today right of what people do you go and study and pray don't go out there and a miracle occurred a meal occurred 185 000 of the syrian soldier assyrian soldiers died in a plague overnight okay it was miraculous that's amazing 185 000 enemy soldiers just like that but he threatened them do not go out to fight stay in the bay midrash and pray okay so basically we were just discussing this and i just like in hebrew hayo hayardi mitzrayim la azra you're going down to egypt to seek help remember they have and i don't know what the horses are called but there is such a concept called arabian horses in the middle east they're very well known for horses the al-susim enu right this whole idea is you're going down because you're relying and trusting in the horses and the chariots the al-raheb this is just in line with the point here that the king should not amass too many horses and he shouldn't go down to egypt as well right nobody should go down to egypt but we'll talk about that shortly we're going to quote the rambam and see where that leads us okay so um possession mr this is what it says in our own verse verse 16 in our chapter it's number six only he may acquire many horses he may not acquire many horses for himself so that he will not bring the people back to egypt in order to acquire many horses i want to understand this verse is very cryptic you're not it's a separate mitzvah nobody should go down to egypt to live it applies to everybody but the king should not bring the people back to egypt in order to acquire the horses because the acquisition of the horses or too many horses is not a good thing and the lord said you shall not return that way anymore we're going to see the whole mitzvah have not returned to egypt shortly just look at rashi on that verse 17 verse 16 but only what he needs for his chariots so that he will not cause the people to return to egypt in order to purchase the horses because that's where horses come from it's a very interesting insight that's referring to the horses very specifically so this is what he's warned about so the clear car four lines down begins apparently it's not forbidden to go to egypt for business right temporarily okay sir but the real prime israel going back to egypt is the whole point the main point i should say the whole point the main point is not relying on these horses because by relying on these horses you're removing from yourself any type of faith and security in hashem that he will save you al qain see the shalom it's reima de la harbour therefore it's a command one of the 613 commands not just to the to the king but also especially to the king not to return the people towards egypt back to egypt in order to increase your horses because it's as if right the the actions that you're doing show something that you're trusting in these externals the horses and the chariots are soros but it is permissible to go down to egypt to do business vitamin yakar youtube called forshim according to the cleocar this is a very va this is um this this reason that he's giving is much more precious much more valuable than what all the other mufurshims speak about regarding returning down to egypt the boy okay and the third thing we talked about is having too many wives they're gourmet hashem too many too many wives could cause one to turn away their hearts from serving hashem khederik shanna similar to what happened to i just have a few verses to talk about here it says in the first kings not a not 4 4 but 11 4. so um you'll find that well that's number eight but let's look at number seven in our own chapter chapter 17 verse 17 and number seven and he shall not he shall not take many wives for himself and his heart may not turn away see it says lo ya sur le vavo not to deviate not to turn his heart away okay by the way how many can a king have up to 18 um but not more look at number eight first kings chapter 11 4 and it was at the time of solomon's old age that his wives turned away his heart after other gods you see the hebrew he too sorry no of sorry to at level elohim okay so this is a problem and his heart was not whole with the lord his god like the heart of david his father okay now so basically this sums up the first paragraph this idea of the three categories are very well i think they're very clear that it's first of all it's not just the king these lessons like the jewish people have lessons to learn from themselves and hopefully they will spread to the world how to be a more moral thinking person and trusting in hashem so too whatever lessons there are for the king we're also kings of our own home we're also kings of our own body and our own nature so there are obvious lessons that each human being should take to heart now back into our own verse because it says that in verse 18 the cut of lo at mishnah torazot he's supposed to write this book twice or have two copies of it kiday shaykhrabo the point is that he should be reading in it and learning in it the yeadah it's so important that he's aware conscious and he's therefore is is warned and he has to be watchful from these three things don't go down the rabbit hole connected rebuy a casif amar now parallel to this idea of gaining too much wealth it says in uh here i have number nine on the source sheet 17 verse 20 which we're going to concentrate a little bit now a few times so this heart will not be haughty over his brothers think about it if you know any rich people i know plenty who are very humble and they give away their wealth to great charities but it must be a tremendous test right i ask hashem test me you know but anyway so that you will not become uh become haughty liberty this is what the the verse is saying so that the heart of the king will not be haughty over his brothers and it continues so that he will not turn away from the commandment either to the right or the left sorry so basically what we just said about the the the party part that's because of the increased wealth and then regarding the women connected reba nashim that's what i just read so he will not turn away from the commandment either to the right or to the left okay as we said the word sur we pointed out earlier that that means to be turned away like king solomon and like the other commandment okay now what about uh kaderic mar lamala right uh in verse 17 that's what i was referring to in verse 17 we use the word sore it says um actually 17 where is it ah here it is le year below nushing don't increase wives below you us so your hearts are not turned away so that's parallel to that and then what about the um the increase of horses connected rebuy has now that you also find at the end of verse 20 where it says in order that he he may prolong his his days and his kingdom he and his sons and without reading the last two words i'm i'm going to read them but i want to read them in hebrew first because of israel among israel we're going to concentrate a little bit now on those words what does it mean the carer of the israel hold your horses we're going to get to it no pun intended okay but it says because of israel meaning to say that if you whether it's the king right the king if you trust in the horses and the chariots yamut you will actually die in the war and how do we see this look in psalms 37 verse 17 a horse is a false hope for i don't know if chua is victory but it's salvation the horse is a false hope for salvation and with his power he will not escape uber wrote he has the word nephesh nafsho meaning your soul right you or your your yourself even the word nephesh doesn't always mean just the soul but it means you're going to die in in battle you're not going to win and you will die a vow but but if you trust in the salvations of god ya mean below yamus then you will have a long life and you will not die now truth be told it sounds like we're talking about a physical life it's not just a physical life we're also talking about allah and eternity as well okay now there's different levels of understanding now here we're going to get into biker visual the last two words of of 1720 uh number nine on the sword sheet what does it mean in order that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his sons among israel uh it says it i'm not making this up you can't make this up what in the world does it mean among israel well the clear car says that if one trusts in these external forces like the horse and the chariot mivac yeshua the azer may artsosa i might even say it's as if we already saw the whole idea of going down to egypt was to get these horses so if you're trusting in the horse and the the rechev the the chariot it is as i have a hard time saying that it's like it's it's like it's requesting salvation and help from other nations because it says the care of israel you're going to find your salvation within israel the lobby right so in other words he's requesting by by looking for this the salvation through the source in the rehab you're putting your trust you're putting your salvation in other nations and not the care of israel and not within within the care of israel not within israel now i want to reiterate the name israel is the name of our god the god of israel the land of israel the torah of israel and the people of israel so it says the kirby strong what are we talking about here i think we're talking about all of the above okay kedarkshin mr as it said in um we've mentioned verse 20. no i'm sorry it's not 20. so the the verse is quoting is the isaiah 31 quote um verse one woe to those who go down to egypt for aid right as long as you're looking to these external things for your to win the war right hashem is your salvation hashem is your help not these other nations right but if provided you don't increase horses then what is the result as you might say to sure because of israel then you will find your salvation the carer of israel within within israel the lomi and artos amongst the lands of the nations i just want to give a little bit of background every nation except israel but every nation has a uh administering angel okay which these nations sometimes the individuals are not going directly to god they're using these intermediates angels in order to get to god i mean you just think about christianity for an example right they think they have to go through somebody it's it's almost natural for the non-jew to think that way almost because they do have only israel has just straight that's what israel means yeshua straight to god but the non-jew they have administering angels so they think they have to go through the ministering angels and they're it's like all fake news but in other words they've bought into this religion of paganism they don't think it is they think it's monotheistic because they think they believe in the one god but they're using external forces to get to that one god i mentioned this before when we say the shema we put our right hand over our face the thumb is called the godel that's the large goda means the great that's the jewish people we're supreme over all the other nations we have four we'll call them paradigm examples of nations right the four uh mahrut that we were exiled with starting with we'll call it babylon and then persia or mead and then greece and then rome okay these fingers all have knuckles everyone has knuckles but there's three joints there's three joints right so what about the thumb the jew it says you shall live apart you shall not be like the other nations see the thumb doesn't have three joints it doesn't have an intermediate joint it goes straight to hashem this is what israel is the lord is one so listen israel the lord is our god the lord is one but what is what also we have a rule that one should go to a jewish court not to a non-jewish court rashi says and many explain this is like a voter czar if you go to these courts these are non-jewish court they they have a different system of justice for a jew shouldn't go there because it's like idol worship it's like because when you're saying your system is grand your system is is better or good when we have our own system to use our system which god gave that's appropriate for a jew for a jew should not go to of course there's exceptions we could talk about that go to your local orthodox rabbi but when you make your own claim you should make sure to go to a jewish court first otherwise it's likened a vote azara like you're giving credit to those administering angels that are overseeing these other nations so that's i think when he's talking about the curviest round he says lo may arts specifically within israel and not amongst the the land of the nations it's referring to many factors the torah the people the land for sure and the god of israel and there's another hand the odd remnants oh no that hash that the jewish people it says israel is will be saved no sha the hashem they will be secured and saved the carer of israel by hashem when they walk amongst israel when they walk within israel when i first became religious and i learned there's such thing as karate that was i think what really got me you know karate means to be cut off from the jewish people there are certain sins that if you perform these sins you are cut off from the jewish people obviously there's different opinions about what karate is but it literally means cut off who would want to be cut off and then you have two very important positive mitzvahs normally positive mitzvahs don't carry hardly any punishment but there are two that carry the most severe of karate to being cut off and that's the brittamila which broke sham i had and the other is corbin pesach well when we have it so at least you know go through the motions of eating matzah eating the afikomin right not wanting to be cut off in the jewish people so this is something that many people are not aware of who would want to be cut off from the eternal nation from the special chosen nation who nobody i know anyway so he says there's a verse in chapter 23 verse 15 of deuteronomy it's and number 11 on the sour sheep it says like this for the lord your god goes along in the midst of your camp it's number 11 on the sur sheet it's clear as day it's hashem your god mit hashem is within the camp of the jews he's there to rescue you and deliver you deliver your enemies from before you therefore make sure to keep your camp holy so the hedonist should not see anything unseemly among you and would turn away from you it's unbelievable what a beautiful what a beautiful verse and hopefully you can understand it on a deep level not to separate yourself from the jewish people for those who are listening you've accepted the god of israel as the true god you've accepted the jewish people because the torah you accepted the torah and the torah says that the jewish people have a mission help us help yourself don't work against us and what does this verse mean as we just quoted in uh deuteronomy 23 verse 15. again having a long life me me shehu because of israel for those who are amongst the jewish people right you can be a non-jew and accept the god of israel and accept the mission of jewish people and support the jewish people you were counted at least as a non-jew like whether it's a gertosha bizrat hashem soon will have such a status but the highest level of a non-jew can really feel the care of israel rant hashem so anyway this is just the one verse that we dealt with in this week's parsha again you can look through the other um previous links down below for other classes to listen to and we wish everybody right a uh a good life a good week a good shabbos and we'll all see you bizarro next week [Music] is [Music]